Prof. Hinkenjann is coordinating a sub-project of the American PIRE-project run by the National Science Foundation: “Black Hole Astrophysics in the Era of Distributed Resources and Expertise”.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an international collaboration aiming to capture the first image of a black hole – specifically the black hole in the centre of our galaxy. This will put Einstein’s theory of general relativity to the test in extreme conditions.

The PIRE-project explores the use of cutting edge information technology to support international teams working locally on all five continents. Researchers will develop suitable new technologies, algorithms, and infrastructures.

Prof. Hinkenjann and Matthew Turk from Stanford University are coordinating a sub-project called “thrust #3” which tackles the visualization of big and distributed data that should be accessible for all researchers of a global team.